Think about your typical morning and all of the decisions you make before even leaving the house: Can I hit snooze? What am I making for breakfast? What am I going to wear? If you have kids, you can double the decision making process. No wonder you sometimes may feel exhausted by 9:30 a.m.!
The average adult makes up to 35,000 choices a day. According to a New York Times Magazine article, the more choices you make throughout the day, the harder it becomes for your brain to make decisions and it begins to look for shortcuts. Some of these shortcuts can lead to lack of willpower, impulsiveness, and avoidance. Social psychologist Roy Baumeister coined the term “ego depletion” over a decade ago. This is what is now commonly referred to as decision fatigue.
Did you ever notice that Steve Jobs consistently wore black turtlenecks, jeans, and New Balance sneakers? Mark Zuckerberg claims to have over 20 identical grey tee shirts for a reason. You see where I'm going with this: if you can cut down on the smallest decisions at the beginning of your day, you free up your mental bandwidth for more important things.
Let’s talk about how decluttering and organizing your home can cut down on the daily decisions you make. By simplifying your toiletries and makeup, your routine can be cut down significantly. By decluttering and organizing your closet, you can save time on deciding what to wear. Whether you hire a professional organizer or tackle decluttering on your own, this can lead to lightening your mental load immensely.
Take a few minutes at the end of each day to plan for the next day: pack your gym bag, choose your outfit, check the kids’ backpacks and prep lunches if possible. I even go as far as setting out my coffee cup with my K cup pods ready to go (actually, my husband does this for me, aww).
By implementing even simple organizational systems in your home, this will help you to establish and maintain routines that can remove some of these “ego depleting” decisions from your day, leaving you with more mental focus and clarity. This can lead to saving time and energy to spend how you wish and with those you love.
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